Sorry, no political diatribe to light up your night. Just wanted to remind you of the new column way down on the right labeled "elsewhere," with recent reviews from Newsday. I just updated the roster. … [Read more...]

Here is my survey of Pilobolus's three programs at the Joyce Theater, including the premiere "Rushes" by guest choreographers Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak, both of Israel, with Pilobolus codirector Robby Barnett supervising (as he put it in an interview; maybe he was being modest).
In the review, I wonder briefly about the chairs that appear in the work of contemporary Jewish choreographers. I … [Read more...]

Here are a couple of interesting responses to my last post, on ABT's "The Sleeping Beauty."
From Dance Magazine's editor in chief, Wendy Perron:
Hi, Apollinaire,
I like your description of the "Hey, let's put on a show!" spirit of ABT's "Sleeping Beauty." It's too bad there wasn't time to develop and connect all those ideas. But I felt like the right casting could have helped a lot.
I saw three … [Read more...]

I have been ruminating about American Ballet Theatre's "The Sleeping Beauty"--first in excited anticipation, here and here and here, then in more sober post-premiere reflection, here and here and here--for so long, you'd think I would have exhausted the subject.
Nope!--especially now that ABT's artistic director, Kevin McKenzie, who choreographed this version with former ballerina Gelsey Kirkland … [Read more...]

Tomorrow (UPDATE: late Wednesday), in fact: what can be done about American Ballet Theatre's much-maligned "The Sleeping Beauty." (A whole lot, I say.)
In the meantime, how about being all crazy and reading this essay on the state of experimental dance in, um, Bushwick -- no, in New York? Really. I do not exaggerate. … [Read more...]

From Foot contributor Paul Parish:
A propos of nothing (and I promise I will write something appropriate SOON), in my other life, I have invented a new drink, and my friends have urged me to copywrite it.
I figure, I'll post it on the net, by Foot in mouth, and that'll establish my claim. What do you say? We all have day jobs--as the club dancers call it, "the afterlife." And in the afterlife, I'm … [Read more...]

So, remember when the Times dance writer extraordinaire Claudia La Rocco and I were on WNYC going on about the end of a ballet era? (What's this? You say, No, you don't remember, you have had other things to do besides follow Foot's every move?)
Well, afterwards I was saying how nice it would be to go on the radio all the time when Doug Fox of Great Dance interjected, Why don't you?
I'm not, but … [Read more...]

Everyone took a side.
Depending on who you asked, the warehouse was too big and too cold, or the audience was too big and too drunk. The event's organizers encouraged anarchy and violence, or they might have sold peanuts with the booze. The lobster lady was right to throw a mike stand at the woman with the rat-a-tat toy machine gun strapped across her bare breasts, or the topless chick had good … [Read more...]

...to my assessment of Alastair Macaulay in the previous post.
Lise Brenner, a choreographer in New York, writes:
I want to thank you for a very balanced and considered review of A. Macaulay's performance to this point.
He IS in a very powerful position vis a vis dance. What's important is not only what he says about any individual dancer or choreographer or company, but the effect he has on the … [Read more...]

GO. Or not. I'm not quite sure what to advise about James Kudelka's "Cinderella" at ABT. (But you only have through Saturday to decide.) Last year, I loved the modern take on the story but was underwhelmed by the steps. This year, I was enchanted from the second act on--enough to forgive the sloppy beginning and Kudelka's idea of the point shoe as super-high heel.
The duets between Cinderella and … [Read more...]

Apollinaire Scherr

is the New York-based dance critic for the Financial Times. She has written regularly for The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Newsday, as well as SF Weekly and the East Bay Express, in the Bay Area. She has contributed to... Read More…

Foot in Mouth

This blog's concern is the tricky business of recognizing dance's peculiar language and history … [Read More...]